Dozen Editions № 4: Empty Billboard, Shinjuku Station

There are certain categories of things that I collect with the camera out of visual interest. Any time I see these things, I make a photograph. Over time, I build a collection of them.

Blank signs and billboards are one of the things I collect. We are bombarded with advertising all the time, and I find it interesting when a space that would normally be trying to sell you something is sitting there blank and inert.

This particular blank billboard was spotted somewhere in Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, Japan, and photographed with my diary camera. Shinjuku Station is, incidentally, the busiest train station in the world, with somewhere around 3.6 million people per day passing through it.

Original image created in the summer of 2019. Shot on Ilford HP5+ film with a Minolta SR-T 101. The image size is 6x9 inches, printed on high-quality 8x10 inch Hahnemuhle photo gloss baryta paper using archival inks.

I have always preferred to print my work in smaller sizes. Smaller prints are more intimate. They don't dominate a space, but rather punctuate it and invite you to get closer. You have to get closer to them to examine their contents. This is something I value as both an artist and a collector of art.